Sheep Feet Socks

Just before Thanksgiving, I posted a sock toe on this here blog and neglected to tell you much about the project.

It was a brand new yarn that we had just gotten in at Bloomin Yarns. Sheep Feet from Sheep Shop Yarn Company.

Bloomin has carried their Sheep Two and Sheep Three for quite a while, but Sheep Feet was a new experience. So I took a skein home and got started.

I was worried about the yardage from the get-go. This yarn is very much like Socks that Rock Mediumweight, but while the STR-M is a 350-yard put-up, the Sheep Feet is a puny 218 yards. Yeah.

So I carefully weighed and measured this yarn. On the scale (I have a kick-ass new scale that I got a few months ago from here. It weighs to 0.1 gram accuracy. I lurves it, although if I had known about the scale KnitPicks is selling, I likely would have purchased that one instead.), divide the weight total by two. Wind so both halves of the skein are equal in weight. Mark the center. Re-wind into one ball. Start knitting. See what happens.

I did my standard New Pathways garter toe. See?

Garter toes. Check!

I knit the Riverbed architecture and New Pathways heel turn

Heels. Check!

Then I headed up the leg. Hmmmmm …

Cuffs!

See that removable stitch marker on the front sock? Well, that’s the halfway point of the skein. Which means that’s where I would have had to quit if I wanted an equal-height pair of socks from a single skein of Sheep Feet. Want a better look?

Sock #1, on the hoof!

So there you go. If you like short socks or have small feet, then yes. You can get a pair out of a single skein. I wear a US Women’s 8.5 shoe and I do not like short socks. Which meant that sock #1 was knit from more than half of that skein and I busted out my “emergency” skein for the second sock. Which is why they don’t match perfectly, as I’m sure you’ve noticed from the photos.

Sheep Feet Socks

Pattern: New Pathways Riverbed Master
Yarn: Sheep Feet
Colorway: Spring
Quantity: Roughly a total of 1.5 skeins, but each sock was knit with a separate skein
Source: Bloomin Yarns
Needles: US 2.5/3.0mm, Addi Lace needles, 47", Magic Loop
Sock Size: U.S. Women’s 8.5 (for me, which means 8.5” circumference/9.5” length)
Started: 21 November 2008
Finished: 1 December 2008 (yes, these were very fast socks!)
Mods: None

Notes: I really love this yarn. Enough that I bought two skeins in Modern for “man socks” when Bloomin had its sale right after Thanksgiving. But therein lies the problem. I bought two skeins. This yarn is too damn expensive to be one-per-sock, since it retails at $20/skein. A knitter should be able to get a pair of socks out of a skein that costs that much. The only exception would be if the yarn has luxury fiber content, and this doesn’t.

The strange yardage decision for this put-up will keep it off of my list of favorites, but if you can get it on sale or are knitting a shorter-yardage project? Go for it. It’s a great yarn.